History of bruno Mars
Mars attended Roosevelt High School, where he and several friends formed a band, The School Boys, performing classic oldies hits. "Performing from such a young age just got me so comfortable on stage. Growing up performing—that was normal for me. Everyone in my family sings, plays instruments. It's what we do."
After graduating from high school in 2002 at age 17, Mars decided to leave Hawaii for Los Angeles. During his first few years in California, he struggled to make a breakthrough in the music industry. He first turned to songwriting. "I only started writing songs when I moved up to L.A., because when I was in Hawaii I never really needed to, but it stemmed from just learning that you have to do everything by yourself. It's not like what you see in movies, where you walk into a record company and you're given all these great songs to sing. You have to write the song the world is going to want to hear and play it over and over again. I learned that the hard way here in L.A." A friend introduced Mars to songwriter Phillip Lawrence, who agreed to help Mars compose material. They presented a song they had written and recorded to a record label, who liked it but wanted one of their own artists to perform it. Initially Mars was disappointed. "The light bulb went off. I decided to push the artist thing aside and get into the business this way. We can write songs and produce songs, so we just really focused our energy into writing for other artists. That's how it all began." By the late 2000s, Mars started finding success by writing songs for other popular artists such as Flo Rida's smash hit "Right 'Round," Brandy's "Long Distance," Travie McCoy's "Billionaire" and K'Naan's "Wavin' Flag," the theme song for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
After several years as one of the pop music industry's premier songwriters, Mars finally broke out as a singer in his own right with the 2010 hit "Nothin' on You." The song was written for the Atlantic Records rapper B.o.B., but the record label decided to have Mars sing it. The track proved an enormous hit, skyrocketing to Number 1 on the Billboard singles chart, instantly transforming Bruno Mars from a behind-the-scenes composer into a pop performer. Several months later, Mars released his first solo single, "Just the Way You Are," another single that landed the artist on top of the Billboard singles chart. "Grenade" and "The Lazy Song" also cracked the top 10 on the singles chart. He also scored another hit with "It Will Rain," which he contributed to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 soundtrack in late 2011.
Around that time, Mars also received several Grammy Award nominations for his debut effort, including Album of the Year. While he went home empty-handed, Mars gave a career-building performance at the Grammy Award ceremony in February 2012. Mars showed himself to be a high-energy live performer.
After a lifetime of striving to reach the top of the music industry, Mars is now trying to enjoy the moment. "Everything's good right now," he says. "It's really paying off because now my songs are on the radio. It took me a while to finally get it, but when I got it, I think I got it right. And I'm very proud of how my songs are representing me as an artist."
After graduating from high school in 2002 at age 17, Mars decided to leave Hawaii for Los Angeles. During his first few years in California, he struggled to make a breakthrough in the music industry. He first turned to songwriting. "I only started writing songs when I moved up to L.A., because when I was in Hawaii I never really needed to, but it stemmed from just learning that you have to do everything by yourself. It's not like what you see in movies, where you walk into a record company and you're given all these great songs to sing. You have to write the song the world is going to want to hear and play it over and over again. I learned that the hard way here in L.A." A friend introduced Mars to songwriter Phillip Lawrence, who agreed to help Mars compose material. They presented a song they had written and recorded to a record label, who liked it but wanted one of their own artists to perform it. Initially Mars was disappointed. "The light bulb went off. I decided to push the artist thing aside and get into the business this way. We can write songs and produce songs, so we just really focused our energy into writing for other artists. That's how it all began." By the late 2000s, Mars started finding success by writing songs for other popular artists such as Flo Rida's smash hit "Right 'Round," Brandy's "Long Distance," Travie McCoy's "Billionaire" and K'Naan's "Wavin' Flag," the theme song for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
After several years as one of the pop music industry's premier songwriters, Mars finally broke out as a singer in his own right with the 2010 hit "Nothin' on You." The song was written for the Atlantic Records rapper B.o.B., but the record label decided to have Mars sing it. The track proved an enormous hit, skyrocketing to Number 1 on the Billboard singles chart, instantly transforming Bruno Mars from a behind-the-scenes composer into a pop performer. Several months later, Mars released his first solo single, "Just the Way You Are," another single that landed the artist on top of the Billboard singles chart. "Grenade" and "The Lazy Song" also cracked the top 10 on the singles chart. He also scored another hit with "It Will Rain," which he contributed to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 soundtrack in late 2011.
Around that time, Mars also received several Grammy Award nominations for his debut effort, including Album of the Year. While he went home empty-handed, Mars gave a career-building performance at the Grammy Award ceremony in February 2012. Mars showed himself to be a high-energy live performer.
After a lifetime of striving to reach the top of the music industry, Mars is now trying to enjoy the moment. "Everything's good right now," he says. "It's really paying off because now my songs are on the radio. It took me a while to finally get it, but when I got it, I think I got it right. And I'm very proud of how my songs are representing me as an artist."